Italy AUTOGRILL was up €0.28 to €12.65. Euromobiliare upped its target to €13.8 and kept its buy rating.
RCS MEDIA was up €0.19 to €4.32. Edizione Holding (owned by the Benettons) has reportedly ruled out buying shares in the company from a stake held by property developer Stefano Ricucci.
FIAT (FIA) was up €0.15 to €9.29. The company registered a 12.1% year-over-year increase in new car registrations in February 2006, agency ACEA said.
Spain TELEFONICA (TEF) was down €0.18 to €13.14. The company said it is to propose a merger with Telefonica Moviles (TEM), offering 4 of its own shares for every 5 Moviles shares. Separately, the company said it has no comment on talk that it could be placing its stake in BBVA. The company holds 36 million shares in BBVA, around 1% of total capital.BBVA was down €0.18 to €16.93. Shares lowered on talk of a placement.
Nordics TELIASONERA was up SEK0.60 to SEK43.80. Having performed a group-wide review of useful lives of intangible and tangible assets, the company said the effect in 2006 is likely to be a reduction of amortization and depreciation of SEK900 million. Netherlands UNIVAR was up €1.07 to €43.75. The company reported fiscal 2005 EPS of US$4.22 vs. US$3.05 in the previous year on sales of US$5.99 billion (+13.3% year-over-year). EBIT amounts to US$207.7 million, up from US$162.3 million in fiscal 2004. Net profit landed at US$123.5 million vs. US$90.8 million.
Switzerland KUDELSKI was down CHF1.20 to CHF36.85. The company 's conditional access system at its biggest client, Echostar, has been hacked. Kepler said this is definitely bad news and does not improve the company's position in the ongoing contract renegotiations.
Germany ALLIANZ (AZ) was down €2.89 to €133.95. The company posted in-line fourth quarter net profit of €872 million and said it expects 2006 operating profit and net earnings to rise 10%. Fiscal 2005 revenues came in at €100.90 billion and operating profit at €7.74 billion.
BMW was up €0.96 to €43.66. Merrill Lynch upgraded the company to buy from neutral, with €50 as the target. It said it likes the new way the company is presenting itself and added that earnings quality has never been in doubt, so the substantial peer discount is now even harder to justify.
ALTANA (AAA) was down €0.70 to €49.00. The company's fiscal 2005 EBIT came in at €676 million, and it proposed a dividend of €1.10 per share for the year, a 16 rise year-over-year. It forecasted sales growth of around 20% for this year to about €4 billion. The company said it will likely list its chemicals unit separately in late autumn. It expects 10% growth on average in its pharma business in 2007-08.
France GAZ DE FRANCE was up €0.87 to €30.40. The company disclosed fiscal year net profit of €1.743 billion, +28.8%, above consensus. EBITDA €4.263 billion, +2.2%. Dividend per share rose 48% €0.68. It sees fiscal 2006 net income above €2 billion, gross operating income up by more than 12%, and expects to pay a dividend superior to €1 per share from 2006.
CASINO was up €3.70 to €55.55. The company posted fiscal year net att. profit €344 million, -37.1%. EBITDA fell 4% to €1.552 billion (of which France -11.1% and international +35.3%). Meanwhile, the company launched a €2 billion asset disposal program to be completed by the end of 2007.
UK PRUDENTIAL (PUK) was up £0.12 to £6.17. The company announced fiscal 2005 total EEV operating profit from continuing operations of £1.712 billion, +33%; new business APE £2.146 billion, +15%; new business profit £867 million, +15%. The company upped its fiscal year DPS to 16.32p vs. 15.84p and said it is confident about its outlook.
VODAFONE (VOD) was up £0.02 to £1.29. US equity funds mulling a bid for Japan arm Cerberus Capital Management and Providence Equity Partners could be close to making an all-cash bid for the company's Japanese unit, wrote The Times.
CORUS UK (CGA) was up £0.05 to £0.82. The company announced fiscal year turnover of £10.14 billion; net profit of £415 million; EPS 10.17p; operating profit £680 million; EBITDA £1.027 billion. Below consensus.
PARTY GAMING was down £0.05 to £1.15. The Times reported that the US Congress approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement proposals being put forward by Republican Jim Leach. Explains his bill, which is seeking to prevent the use of credit card transfers for internet gambling, is one of three currently on the table and there are several hurdles to cross before the bill can become law. Notes two previous bills presented by Mr. Leach, in 2002 and 2003, failed to reach the Senate stage.
Prepared by Zaida Espana, Valerie Vidal, Michael Sanderson, Mariella Mongio, Alexander Wisch, Holly Cook, Emma Stevenson, Pawan Girglani, Julien Manrique, and Rocio Opazo-Aniotz (Standard & Poor's); Alex Halperin (BusinessWeek Online)
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